AMA Medicine Entry

As a newly appointed mod I wanted to make my presence a bit more known. I thought a good way to do this would be by opening an AMA. I am currently studying medicine at a graduate level and would be happy to take any questions regarding the processes involved in getting into graduate medicine, and how it differs to undergraduate medicine. I'll post a detailed advice thread once UMAT results are out for students, detailing options based on scores. However, for now please feel free to ask any uni-related questions to me.

I can see that you did a Medical Science degree as your undergraduate degree. I'm just wondering, what happened to those in your cohort that didn't get into medicine or pursue further studies? Are most working in labs/research based positions?

I can see that you did a Medical Science degree as your undergraduate degree. I'm just wondering, what happened to those in your cohort that didn't get into medicine or pursue further studies? Are most working in labs/research based positions?

Thanks

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Hi Yam,

Thanks for the question. Most people who did not get into medicine pursued study in other fields. Some of these fields included health-related disciplines such as physiotherapy, optometry and dentistry. On the other hand, some pursued completely different fields such as law and commerce. Some people did do Honours and have either started working in research or have continued on to do a PhD, but this forms the minority to the best of my knowledge. Only a very small fraction have started working full-time to the best of my knowledge. Of these people, they seem to be working in unrelated fields such as in commerce.
Some people were not interested in research at all from the get go, and some tried it and disliked it, while others tried it and thoroughly enjoyed it. From what I know not that many people did honours.

How did you find the essay questions in the GAMSAT? As someone with a science background did you find yourself to be underbaked when it came to argumentative writing? Do you reckon people who did arts and stuff at undergrad would have better prepared to write on such abstract topics?

How did you find the essay questions in the GAMSAT? As someone with a science background did you find yourself to be underbaked when it came to argumentative writing? Do you reckon people who did arts and stuff at undergrad would have better prepared to write on such abstract topics?

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Hi Sixty,

To be honest, no. I did not find myself at a disadvantage for being from a Science background, if anything the essays were one of my stronger sections. I think that people tend to categorise themselves unnecessarily when it comes to the GAMSAT. Some people assume because of their Science background they will demolish S3 and they resign themselves to the idea they cannnot do well in S1 and S2. Ultimately, breaking this attitude is a significant step towards approaching the exam in a more rationale way.

I personally had an interests in areas such as philosophy so I had read the works of Mill, Kant, etc. I also enjoyed staying uptodate with current affairs so that helped.

I think that breaking the fixed mindset helps a lot when approaching S1 and S2 (and S3!). Once you engage with your reasoning skills the task is more palatable.

In short, the advantage is what you make it out to be. Having a good understanding of the sciences, humanities, and critical thinking should serve anyone well.

How did you find the essay questions in the GAMSAT? As someone with a science background did you find yourself to be underbaked when it came to argumentative writing? Do you reckon people who did arts and stuff at undergrad would have better prepared to write on such abstract topics?

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I don’t want to tread on Perp’s turf (thread) here (sorry Perp!) but thought I would quickly weigh in here as well.

I completely echo the above. As you may know (or will come to realise when preparing for GAMSAT), Acer places a much higher weighting on creativity and expressing unique ideas, rather than the way you express said ideas. An essay with poor/no structure that provides a unique/insightful viewpoint on a topic is likely to score just as well (likely better) than an essay that is expressed well but lacks any originality or insight. Obviously this is contentious and an essay riddled with spelling mistakes and lacking cohesion is going to be marked down significantly, but the point stands that originality is key.

Anyhow, what this means is that being a science student (as opposed to any other type of student, including an Arts student) should not disadvantage you in itself; however if you don’t learn to think critically/consider topics from different perspectives, you are less likely to have original ideas and therefore less likely to write a high-scoring essay. Obviously Arts students practise this skill in depth in their degrees and thus are more likely to score well in s2 even with limited GAMSAT-specific preparation; however, you can give yourself the same advantage they have by (as Perp mentioned) broadening your worldly knowledge and starting to look at different topics from multiple perspectives, being able to weigh up the pros and cons of different decisions and events etc. Obviously this doesn't necessarily require a keen interest in philosophy/humanities to achieve (I certainly didn't do any reading on philosophy in my prep!) but starting to read articles (especially editorials and opinion pieces) on broad topics provides you with a) a bunch of different perspectives on topics you may not have previously considered and b) events which you can use as supporting evidence in your essays - both of which will serve you very well for essay writing.

If you are indeed 18, I assume you won't be sitting GAMSAT properly until next year or later - if this is the case, you have plenty of time to start involving yourself in these sorts of practices which will serve you well for a GAMSAT essay. Also, for your reference you don't necessarily have to write argumentatively at all - there are people who have scored in the 80s (i.e. exceptional) who wrote first-person reflective pieces for both of their essays.

Wow, this turned out much longer than I expected.... apologies for the tangent

Do you reckon people who did arts and stuff at undergrad would have better prepared to write on such abstract topics?

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To answer this question directly (as nobody has yet): yes, generally speaking, an Arts degree does give you significant advantage for both Sections 1 and 2. Disclosure: I sat GAMSAT having completed both a science and an arts degree.

Anyhow, what this means is that being a science student (as opposed to any other type of student, including an Arts student) should not disadvantage you in itself; however if you don’t learn to think critically/consider topics from different perspectives, you are less likely to have original ideas and therefore less likely to write a high-scoring essay. Obviously Arts students practise this skill in depth in their degrees and thus are more likely to score well in s2 even with limited GAMSAT-specific preparation; however, you can give yourself the same advantage they have by (as Perp mentioned) broadening your worldly knowledge and starting to look at different topics from multiple perspectives, being able to weigh up the pros and cons of different decisions and events etc.

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I would disagree with the simplicity of this assumption. Arts students not only have the benefit of years of tertiary-level instruction and experience in Section 1 and 2-orientated content, they are often also self-selected, in that they are commonly people who have a natural interest and strong aptitude in such things already. To suggest that cumulative advantage can be evened up by simply broadening one's "worldly knowledge" and thinking about things in depth is to underestimate what it takes to excel in these fields.

Given that GAMSAT's Section 3 has recently evolved into more of a problem solving exercise, rather than one that mandates and tests science knowledge (as it once was), it's interesting to consider that degrees in the humanities may well be considered a better "prep" going forward.